Happy New Years, everyone! 2020 was awful, wasn't it? But guess what? If you live in the United States, 2021 has already smirked, rolled its eyes and said, "Hold my beer." We are all Angela Bassett getting burned by our relaxer. Can it get any worse? At this point, we desperately need the dulcet tones from a singer who's been there and back.
In fact, we need Cora Lee Day, a noted actress who had a late-career renaissance in "What's Love Got To Do With It?" and "Daughter's Of The Dust," for which she should have received an Academy Award (or at least a nomination) (but I digress) (as I'm wont to do).
Did you know? Cora was also a skilled jazz and blues performer, though for reasons that still confound me, she recorded only one LP, 1960's luscious"My Crying Hour." Her delivery, on standards like "Trouble Is A Man" and "When Your Lover Has Is Gone," is deceptively gentle, yet steeled with mournful unease, her style fluid and direct. I've no idea what she was doing before this - performing at clubs? headlining jazz bands? - but her album is a smooth gem indeed for These Troubled Times™.
No, no, no! I refuse to give in to cynicism. I'm love drunk! I'm doing my happy-shampoo dance in the shower! Look, ma, I'm having a jolly-gasm! Speaking of jolly, behold Caterina Valente:
For those who need to know, today's look is a cherry red dress with matching cherry red heels. Being the stylish, Parisian-born singer-actress-dancer that she was, Caterina spoke six languages fluently - and sang in them, too. And, yes, she nuzzled with the Rat Pack in the 1950s and 60s.
True to her Vegas travails, her must-have 1958 LP, "A Toast To The Girls" is chock-a-block with hot-cha! Vegas arrangements, along with Caterina's brassy-gal vocals, of course. Close your eyes and you can almost see a kitten with a whip. Is it any wonder that she was married to both a juggler and a pianist? And, yes, there's more Caterina here.
So you see, 2021 will definitely be a giggly bubble bath. To which 2021 says:
For those who need to know, today's look is a cherry red dress with matching cherry red heels. Being the stylish, Parisian-born singer-actress-dancer that she was, Caterina spoke six languages fluently - and sang in them, too. And, yes, she nuzzled with the Rat Pack in the 1950s and 60s.
See, music really can relieve the bad times - and maybe even amend the future, to which the future says:
No, no, no! Happy-happy-happy! Treason's Greetings! Calgon, take me away! Speaking of silky body washes, no one can make you feel freshly-scrubbed better than Pat Thomas.
Just look at her: beauty and adorableness incarnate. Born in The City Of Big Shoulders - that's Chicago to you pesky rubes - she was much in-demand by nearly every local jazz band in the late 1950s and early 60s, and hit the big-time, if briefly, with her first LP, 1963's "Desafinado," the title track being a Bossa Nova-flavored delight which rocketed up the charts. But give a listen to the rest and you'll discover a gifted vocalist who can shape-shift depending on the song's style, and all the while remain warmly accessible.
No, no, no! Happy-happy-joy-joy! Shrooms for everyone! Let's get stupid-happy! To which the Secret Song File says: "Meh. We'll see. We'll wait and we'll see." And in the meantime, let's flashback to the 1920s by way of 2021. Confused? Me, too, but that's the kind of world we're living in now.
Actually, it's the soundtrack to a recently released movie about a famed Black jazz songstress - with a galvanizing performance by the Black Panther himself. No, he's not singing on this album, but someone else is, gorgeously recreating the 20s songstress' biggest hits, along with historically accurate recreations of her band's rousing sound. So you see? 2021, 1921. It's all good, as the kids say. And we all know how the 1920s ended, don't we? Oh, wait...
Brother, can you spare a Stimulus Check?
Laugh, clown, laugh, and leave a comment below, if'n you like!
